(reverent news music) - Hello, I'm Stephen Hegg in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.

A good part of Eastern Washington is covered in shrub-steppe, a combination of low shrubs, bushes, and grasses, and it's critical wildlife habitat.

State biologist Matt Ritter says shrub-steppe is, "As complex as the rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula."

But this area filled with unique birds and critters has shrunk by 40%, with farms and towns gobbling it up for more than a century and larger wildfires now taking their toll.

Now, it faces encroachment from green energy developments such as wind turbines and solar farms.

They've been promoted by Governor Jay Inslee and are spurred on by a state mandate to have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045.

It's a surprising conflict between cleaner energy and preserving the land as wildlife habitat, sometimes pitting environmentalists against environmentalists.

I'm Stephen Hegg.

Find nonprofit Northwest news every day on crosscut.com.

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